It’s been a busy Summer and although things have been quiet on the blog, it’s been quite the reverse in the office. I’ve been planning a lot of things to post up here so I’ll start rolling them out over the next few weeks and months (and it’s not all shameless publicity).
In the meantime with the schools back tomorrow we’ll be returning to normal office hours. So I’ll be here 9-10 and 2-3pm every day so that anyone can drop in without an appointment.
Outside those hours I’ll be here unless I need to be somewhere else. So it’s likely I will be in the office but it’s generally best to call and make an appointment to make sure.
That said I have a wedding booking this Friday (30th) so won’t be here at any stage that day.
I don’t do video, I’m a stills guy. I like a good movie – one with a good story – whatever the genre. But I prefer to tell stories myself using still images.
I am however a Swimmer and after a few years out of the pool as my kids have got more into swimming then I’m getting more involved myself.
So I guess it was only a matter of time before my interests came together: swimming, image capture, techy stuff.
When I met Garry I was inspired by his drive to improve the swimming ability of everyone he talks to. He’s more baldy-headed about swimming than even me!
We’ve now teamed up to provide technical analysis for freestyle swimmers. I’ve learned a lot about video in the process and the product is now matured. I’ve learned to ‘truck underwater’ and all about high frame rate capture. I’ve found some great free tools for editing video (and some crap ones). I’ve had a lot of fun and learned more about swimming in the process.
If you’re a mature swimmer and interested in improving your freestyle technique, check out video analysis cork for information on the analysis and development sessions.
It’s not exactly creative video – I’ll leave the wedding videos to the pros – but I’ve loved the technical challenge of getting this right.
In a digital age many people are still surprised that by far the majority of my photographs are delivered as prints.
I think it’s part of a full professional service that you get a professional product and not something that’s not ready for you to enjoy.
Most of my customers share the appreciation for a good print and they deserve to make the most of their images once we went to so much effort to create them together.
About two years ago we brought our printing in-house. That means that every thing up to a 20″ print (A2 paper size) is printed in-house.
It’s a quality thing. It’s about being in control of the whole end-to-end process of delivering my images to my customers. A lot of effort goes into capture (taking the picture with the best equipment and with optimal settings, good composition and great engagement) and then the post-processing of images to make them shine, so why would I give up the transfer of all that perfection to someone else.
And there is a huge variation to printing. Between the mapping of colour to ink and paper types to the handling and mounting of the prints, there are a lot of subjective decisions which I don’t want to leave to chance.
So bringing printing in-house was a big step. Not only buying a good printer but choosing paper stocks and learning how to get the best from my end-to-end set up.
I call it ‘hand printing’ because it’s a craft process. It may be less ‘hands-on’ than the traditional film/paper/chemical proccesses which I grew up with but in actual fact the inclusion of the computer is all that’s changed. The level of control and the ambition to create the perfect print is the same. The ability to print exactly how you see your print in your mind is the same.
Every print we produce goes through the same process. Each is printed on archival, acid free, fine art papers. The ink-paper combination is designed to last for generations if properly looked after. I also print on more specialist matt papers if it suits the image and the application. Each print is checked (and re-worked if necessary) and mounted in quality framers mounts.
If you choose a framed print, we can supply custom-made frames from a local framer or a small range of stock frames (also sourced locally).
You can also buy the high resolution images and produce your own prints – they cost about the same as print of equivalent resolution – but we can’t stand over the quality of the printer you choose.
How you display your images has a huge impact on whether you get to enjoy them. My images of your family deserve the best and our in-house process is designed to do just that.
In order to help you plan your child’s First Holy Communion I’ve put together a couple of pages of info on the blog:
First Holy Communion Photographs for 2014 gives details of the services we offer on the day of the Communion: Studio Sessions, Home Sessions and Pictures at the Church
First Holy Communion Packages 2014 has information about the print packages we’ve put together for First Communion Photographs. These are available to all sessions that we shoot for First Communions and Confirmations.
We generally offer the same range of services to Confirmation Services – please call to check our availability on your date.
Hopefully these are useful but if you need any more information please do not hesitate to call – 021 4293714 or email rob@roblambphoto.com
We’re getting a steady flow of enquiries about Communions and Confirmations since we got back from the Christmas Hols: it’s the next big event this year for a lot of families and many are starting to plan getting the family together.
The most popular dates are starting to fill up and in particular we’re almost full for Saturday 18th May.
I’m very pleased to say that many bookings are coming from families who we worked with two or three years ago for their last Communion. I always like to think the best testimonial is a client who comes back happily.
Don’t forget Confirmations as well: it marks the transition to the Senior Cycle and Confirmation Photos are more about a milestone in a young person’s life than the ‘big day’.
Confirmation Photographs: Moving On to Senior Cycle
We’re back in action this week after an extended Christmas break last week. Time to take down the tree and get back to work (lots to do).
So normal working hours are back in place in Ardfallen Estate: there will always be someone here 9-10am and 2-3pm. Outside those times either myself or Lucy will be in the office unless we need to be somewhere else.
If you need to call in outside the core opening hours that’s normally OK but it’s best to phone or text to check that someone is here. I take appointments outside these times including lunchtimes, early evening and weekends (subject to other commitments).
But if you’re passing and the door is open feel free to call in. Conversely there are (a very few) days when I can’t keep the core hours (I can’t break away from a wedding to open the office for an hour for instance) so if you find the door closed when it shouldn’t be then just give me a call to make an appointment.
We’ll be holding our Halloween Dress Up for Crumlin again this year next Friday 26th October.
Kids can come into the Gallery in Halloween Dress Up and get a Free Photo in our Festive Den.
We had a great time last year and we raised over €500 for Children’s Charities. So this year we’re hoping to go even better with more kids getting to come in and experience the Den and hopefully as much raised again for Crumlin Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House.
We’ll be opening up around 11pm on Friday the 26th and we’re hoping that since it’s the last school day before Halloween there’ll be lots of kids in frightfully good costumes wandering the streets of Douglas. They can come in and get their photo taken in the Den we’ll give them a free print.
If you weren’t here last year and you’re wondering what it’s all about, take a look at the gallery on Facebook for more of what we did last year.
Thanks to all the members of Cork Textile Network who brought their work to Bishopstown Library on Saturday for photographs. It’s great to see the wealth of creativity and craft that is brought to me every year for photographs.
The CTN Members are preparing for their annual exhibition in the School of Music coming soon.
And look out for CTN Member, Mary Palmer who is opening an exbibition of quilted pieces in Bishopstown Library later this week.
Good luck to you all and I look forward to seeing your work on display.
The Small Fella’s big day is tomorrow and yesterday was the big ‘try on’ day and we were all on shock: he looks so big (typical thing for us to say I know); but he also took to it so well. Boys eh?
I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Cork Craft Month at the Old Mill Kinsale last night. The Old Mill is the location of an exhibition entitled “Who Made This ?” – Cork Creates 2012 which showcases the work of 30 Cork-based craftspeople.
Craftspeople on display in Kinsale
In June this year Cork Craft & Design Network invited me to photograph each of the selected craftspeople. I was expecting to be asked to photograph their work but this exhibition brings the story of each of the Makers into play and the curators wanted to feature them more strongly.
So I had a day of photographing 20-odd very interesting (if somewhat reluctant) people who are far more used to putting themselves into their work than on film.
I think it’s worked wonderfully for this exhibition and there was a lot of talk last night about the portraits and the link made to the Maker from the work and how it enhanced the relationship the viewer (and hopefully the purchaser) had with the work to know more about it’s precedence.
And nice to see my work on the wall next to so much wonderful Art.
The exhibition runs until the end of August in Kinsale and there are lots more more events going on as part of Cork Craft Month running into September
Portraits of Makers featured at Cork Craft Month, KinsaleTracing Craft back to the Makers, Cork Design Network
